Trap and transfer, that's
the name of the game
for Joe McFee (above,
at left) and Don Wilson, wildlife
specialists with the North Caro
lina Wildlife Resources Com
mission's turkey relocation
program. On the Biltmore
Estate, in Asheville, they band
one of nine gobblers captured in
their rocket-fired net. Their col
league Chuck Deyton (below)
releases a hen into the Saura
town Gamelands, north of
Winston-Salem, in the hope of
establishing a viable new turkey
population in that region.
In South Carolina an alert
gobbler peers from a stand of
dogwood trees in the Francis
Beidler Forest, part of Four
Holes Swamp (opposite). In
1986 wildlife managers intro
duced 13 wild turkeys to this
area-five gobblers and eight
hens - where turkeys were
rarely seen. Now the popula
tion numbers in the hundreds.
South Carolina's stocking pro
gram has been so successful that
surplus birds are being shipped
to other states.
"The wild turkey is much
more adaptable than we once
thought," explains Dave Bau
mann, a biologist with the South
Carolina Wildlife and Marine
Resources Department. "Twen
ty years ago you wouldn't have
seen them even close to residen
tial areas; now they're showing
up in peoples' yards."
Much of Baumann's work
takes place in the Francis Mar
ion National Forest, which dips
to within ten miles of the city of
Charleston. With more wild tur
keys and fewer eastern hard
wood forests to accommodate
them, the birds are seeking out
additional feeding grounds
closer to people. "I just may
have to set up a rocket net in
North Charleston," Baumann
says, "to save turkeys from little
boys with BB guns."
NationalGeographic, February1992
SOURCE:
NATIONAL
WILD
TURKEY
FEDERATION